A brief recap – I saw Mr. Rheumatologist in June. Since then I have seen him three times. My blood (ever unwilling to be easy to deal with) returned to normal (excepting my ESR and CRP) after my first visit with Mr. Rheumy. Mr. Rheumy still believes that there is something amiss with my autoimmune system. He just isn’t sure what yet. There are so many possibilities and overlaps on the table still I won’t even bother to list them. Fortunately, he is a good doctor and a kind one. So he decided to treat the symptoms while we wait on the differential diagnosis.

Which brings me to the title of this blog Methotrexate versus Ampligen: A comparison (of sorts). I have been on MTX for about a month now. Mr. Rheumy started me off on a good-sized dose. (Well, that statement may or may not be true – I was using Dr. Google for comparison. I am on a 15mg starting dose.) He’ll be raising the dose at our next visit in August. And then likely raise it again in September. From there we may add in biologic etc.

Though Ampligen and MTX are in different classes and operate in different manners there are some similarities worth noting. Keep in mind that this is only my personal experience.

The first thing I noticed about MTX were the side effects. It was like Ampligen-Lite.

So far the top side effects are as follows:

Sore throat, fatigue, sleepiness, tender lymph nodes, chills, dry mouth, restlessness, dizziness,headaches, unusual or vivid dreams, occasional temporary hair loss, muscle weakness, muscle aches, confusion, joint pain, back pain, flu-like symptoms, malaise, upper respiratory infection / bronchitis, mouth sores, transient visual disturbances, ringing ears.

If this list seems familiar it is because I cut and pasted the Ampligen side effects from a prior blog post.

MTX knocks me for a loop for about 72 hours. I dose myself on Tuesday (another coincidence entangled with Ampligen) and by Friday I am finally feeling more like I did prior to dosing myself.

With only one month under my belt it is a little too early to say how I will do in the long run with MTX. However, the joint pain has lessened with every week and every dose that has passed. Whether that is due to the current joint pain flare ending on its own or the MTX remains to be seen.

I’ll keep you posted.

Sophie